The heat, when I left Luxor, was prodigious.  I was detained three days by the death of Sheykh Yussuf’s poor little wife and baby (in childbirth) so I was forced to stay and eat the funeral feast, and be present at the Khatmeh (reading of the Koran on the third night), or it would not have seemed kind.  The Kadee gave me a very curious prayer-book, the Guide of the Faithful, written in Darfour! in beautiful characters, and with very singular decorations, and in splendid binding.  It contains the names of all the prophets and of the hundred appellations of Mohammed, and is therefore a powerful hegab or talisman.  He requested me never to give it away and always to keep it with me.  Such books cannot be bought with money at all.  I also bought a most beautiful hegab of cornelian set in enamel, the verse of the throne splendidly engraved, and dated 250 years ago.  I sent over by Palgrave to Alick M. Brune’s lovely drawings of Luxor and Karnac, and to Maurice a gold coin which I received as a fee from an old Bedawee.

It was so hot that I could not face the ride up to Keneh, when all my friends there came to fetch me, nor could I go to Siout.  I never felt such heat.  At Benisouef I went to see our Maohn’s daughter married to another Maohn there; it was a pleasant visit.  The master of the house was out, and his mother and wife received me like one of the family; such a pretty woman and such darling children!—­a pale, little slight girl of five, a sturdy boy of four, and a baby of one year old.  The eager hospitality of the little creatures was quite touching.  The little girl asked to have on her best frock, and then she stood before me and fanned me seriously and diligently, and asked every now and then, ’Shall I make thee a sherbet?’ ‘Shall I bring thee a coffee?’ and then questions about grandpapa and grand mamma, and Abd el-Hameed and Abd el-Fattah; while the boy sat on his heels before me and asked questions about my family in his baby talk, and assured me it was a good day to him, and wanted me to stay three days, and to sleep with them.  Their father came in and gave each an ashara (10 foddahs, 0.5 piastre) which, after consulting together, they tied in the corner of my handkerchief; ‘to spend on my journey.’  The little girl took such care of my hat and gloves and shoes, all very strange garments to her, but politeness was stronger than curiosity with the little things.  I breakfasted with them all next day, and found much cookery going on for me.  I took a doll for my little friend Ayoosheh, and some sugar-plums for Mohammed, but they laid them aside in order to devote themselves to the stranger, and all quietly, and with no sort of show-off or obtrusiveness.  Even the baby seemed to have the instinct of hospitality, and was full of smiles.  It was all of a piece with the good old lady, their grandmother at Luxor, who wanted to wash my clothes for me herself, because I said the black slave of Mohammed washed badly.  Remember